.
Carl Spitzweg
5th February 1808 – 23th September 1885
Carl Spitzweg was born on 5th of February in 1808 in Unterpfaffenhofen, Bavaria. Although trained as a chemist, he discovered quite early his talent for drawing and his affinity with art. Spitzweg travelled extensively during his lifetime and the impressions formed by his travels greatly influenced his work. Shortly after completing his studies in pharmaceutics in 1832, he visited Italy. It was particularly in the cities of Florence, Rome, and Naples that he discovered the many significant works of Western culture which were to leave a permanent imprint on him.
A severe case of dysentery in 1833 strengthened his resolve to abandon his career as a chemist and he proceeded to commit himself solely to his painting. In June 1835, he became a member of the Munich Art Association and travelled that same year to southern Tirol with the landscape painter Eduard Schleich, the Elder.
In 1839 he completed his first painting entitled ''The Poor Poet'. Although this recurring motif would later be considered his most well-known body of work, the painting was not accepted at this time by the jury of the Munich Art Association.
As regards his graphic production, the first publication in 1844 of his own illustrations in the Munich weekly paper 'Fliegende Blätter' is considered quite significant. His visits to the Industrial Exposition in Paris and the World's Fair exhibition in London in 1851 were his first contact with the Oriental scenes which would begin to inform his work.
To the deserving painter were bestowed numerous honours during the second half of Spitzweg's lifetime: in 1865 the Bavarian Royal Merit Order of St. Michael was conferred upon him, and in 1875 he was named an honorary member of the Academy of Fine Arts.
Carl Spitzweg died on 23th of September in 1885 and was entombed in the historic South Cemetery in Munich.
He leaves behind a body of work dedicated to the townspeople who inhibit his genre scenes, and with acute and pointed, but never ill-natured humour he portrays the everday bourgeois life of his time.
Lit: Siegfried Wichmann, Carl Spitzweg. Verzeichnis der Werke, Gemälde und Aquarelle, Stuttgart: Belser, 2002.
Carl Spitzweg
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2148
Winterauktionen 20.–21.11.2020
Munch, Edvard
1863 Løten - 1944 Ekely near Oslo.
«Moonlight II».
1902. Woodcut from three woodblocks in five colours on strong brown wove paper. Inscribed probably by a different hand «E. Munch» lower right and numbered 3/20 lower left. Verso on the back board on a label typographically inscribed with the artist's and the work's data.
H 47,
H 52,
When Edvard Munch created this woodcut in 1902, it was not the first time that he worked on the subject of moonlight. The notebooks kept in Oslo bear witness to his literary ambitions and to the recurring motif of the pale, silver light of the moon and the melancholic mood it spreads. «You are taller than me - I stand on a tuft of grass, so that I can look into your eyes - How pale you are in the moonlight and how dark your eyes are - They are so large they cover half the sky - [...].» (MM N 637, fol. 1r). The hesitant longing and the innocent desire of the lyrical «I» for its counterpart, which emerge in this falteringly shy, dreamy aphorism, correspond with the intense, almost hypnotic eye contact between the lady in the picture and us who look at her.
In the series of prints entitled "Moonlight II", the present print occupies a special position. In a playful joy of experimentation, Munch turned the green one of the three woodblocks around by 180°, thus creating a sheet of singular beauty. This procedure is only known from two other woodcuts, "The Kiss III" (WVZ Woll G 124 I) and "Praying old man" (WVZ Woll G 205 II).
We would like to thank Ms Signe Endresen, Munch Museet, Oslo, for the scientific consultation via
Provenance: by donation in private property Wiesental since 1959.
Catalogue raisonné: Schiefler 81 B; Woll 202 II (of II). 
Munch, Edvard
1863 Løten - 1944 Ekely bei Oslo.
«Mondschein II (Moonlight II)».
1902. Farbholzschnitt von drei Holzstöcken in fünf Farben auf festem braunem Velin. U.r. wohl von fremder Hand bez. «E. Munch» und u.l. 3/20 num. Verso auf der Rahmenrückwand auf einem Etikett typografisch bez. mit den Angaben zu Künstler und Werk.
H.
H.
Als Edvard Munch 1902 diesen Holzschnitt schuf, war es nicht das erste Mal, dass er sich dem Thema Mondschein zuwandte. In den in Oslo verwahrten Notizbüchern, die von seinen literarischen Ambitionen zeugen, tauchen das fahle, silberne Licht des Erdtrabanten und die melancholische Stimmung, die es verbreitet, immer wieder auf. «Du bist größer als ich - ich stehe auf einem Grasbüschel, so dass ich in Deine Augen schaue - Wie blass Du im Mondschein bist und wie dunkel Deine Augen sind - Sie sind so groß, dass sie die Hälfte der Himmel bedecken - [...].» (MM N 637, fol. 1r). Die zögerliche Sehnsucht und das unschuldige Begehren des lyrischen Ichs nach seinem Gegenüber, die in diesem stockend-schüchternen, verträumten Aphorismus zutage treten, korrespondieren mit dem intensiven, geradezu hypnotischen Blickkontakt zwischen der Dame im Bild und uns Betrachtenden.
In der Reihe der Drucke mit dem Titel «Mondschein II» nimmt der vorliegende eine Sonderstellung ein. In spielerischer Experimentierfreude drehte Munch den grünen der drei Holzstöcke um 180° und schuf so ein Blatt von singulärer Schönheit. Diese Vorgehensweise ist nur bei zwei weiteren Holzschnitten bekannt, «Der Kuss III» (WVZ Woll G 124 I) und «Betender alter Mann» (WVZ Woll G 205 II).
Wir danken Frau Signe Endresen, Munch Museet, Oslo, für die wissenschaftliche Beratung via
Provenienz: durch Schenkung seit 1959 in Privatbesitz Wiesental.
Werkverzeichnis: Schiefler 81 B; Woll 202 II (von II).